Life through a lens: Dan Burn

A young Burn sporting a classic mid-1990s Magpies top

I'll be five or six here, with the mushroom haircut as well, at my grandma's house in Blyth. Pretty much every Saturday from when I was born, I would stayed at my grandma's until I was about 15. I then had to tell her that I didn't want to stay on a Saturday any more, because I wanted to go out with my mates. I felt so guilty.

Good memories, though. I used to love all the drill tops back then, they're proper old school, weren't they? At that age, I was probably just starting to get into football. My dad was a die-hard, buying us Newcastle stuff, trying to get me into it. He loved football although when I was really small, I don't remember being that fussed about it. But I had a couple of mates who I used to hang around with where I lived in Blyth and they used to go football training so just to play with them, I went and did it. I ended up playing as a keeper for a while as a kid.

When you just start playing, you're terrible aren't you? I think that's why I got stuck in nets - because I probably wouldn't have got a game anywhere else. But I think that's when football started to take hold. Me and my mates would always play outside, then we'd be playing FIFA or watching games on TV in the house. The first person I remember buzzing off was Shay Given - he had those Adidas Fingersave keeper gloves, and I remember getting some of them. I must have asked for them for Christmas or my birthday. I don't have the drill top anymore, unfortunately. I would have made so much money off it!

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Dan - front row, second from left - at his sixth birthday party

You can see how Newcastle-mad everyone is - we've all got the gear. That'll have been the first kit I had, with the shield on the back. It was at Blyth Sports Centre and there's a few of my mates on here, lads I'm still really close to, who come to every game - Daniel Watson's there, Matthew Wade as well, and the one in the green is my best mate, Martyn Hogan. And Chris Laidler, who used to play for the academy, is in this one too - there was a photo when Dummy did this feature and it's got Mark Gillespie on it, Greg McDermott's on it, and Chris Laidler's on it too.

We met at South Beach First School, where we lived, and then went to Wensleydale Middle School, then Blyth Community College. We all ended up playing for Blyth Spartans. I played for Blyth Town until under-11s, then Spartans all the way up until I was an under-17.

Dan and his close friends from childhood - Daniel Watson, Martyn Hogan, Chris Watson, Matthew Wade and Matthew Crook - are pictured at St. James' earlier this year after he signed for Newcastle

I had a ledge picture of me and my mate stood in the garden before the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea in 2000. We had a Newcastle flag, we'd painted our nails black and white and had black and white tops on, but I couldn't find the picture. I remember going to that game, walking up and down Wembley Way. Rob Lee scored and I remember someone in front of us, a Scottish lady, turned round and kissed me on the lips. I was like, 'woah, woah!'

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Dan, left, with his brother Jack

I put this one in for a laugh. I know that the Brazilians here have been bleaching their hair and I thought I would show that, actually, I set the trend. My mam used to put me in the garden when it was sunny with bleach on my hair and I would sit there for an hour. I used to love it so I can understand why Bruno and Joelinton have done it, but I don't think I'll be bringing it back...

This was taken while I was at middle school, Wensleydale, and my brother Jack was at South Beach. He doesn't look that cute anymore! He lives in Canada now. There's four years between us. Around this sort of age, we weren't that tight - he was annoying, and we used to fight quite a bit, but since I was about 15 or 16 we've been really close. It was hard when he lived in Australia for two-and-a-bit years but I speak to him nearly every day now. He played football when he was growing up, but he was more interested in making sure that he looked good rather than actually bothering to play. He's a talented musician though.

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With his Blyth Spartans Under-11s teammates (Dan is in the back row, far left)

This is with some of the same lads from the older photos - Wadey, Crooksy, Chris Laidler. And me on the end there, with the blonde hair.

We played Seaton Burn in a cup final and won. I'm bang into football here, playing with my mates on a Sunday, training through the week and having a kickabout on the back field pretty much every night. I'd become a defender by this point. I think this was the season where I was picked up by Newcastle's development centre.

I played with these lads until I was 16, by which time we were struggling to get a team out and folded. After that I trialled for Wallsend, then stopped playing on a Saturday because I was working at Asda. It was all just for the fun of it then.

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Lining up alongside former Magpies midfielder Michael Richardson in the England Clubs for Young People team

There was this England representative team, called Clubs for Young People, and I was given a trial with them when I was 16 or 17. I didn't have anything else. I was working at Asda by then, and I'd started sixth form. I got through six or seven trial games - me and my mate Crooksy both got picked from Blyth - and then we played a home nations tournament.

This is taken in Durham - the whole tournament was in the North East - and I think we were playing Wales. That's me at the back next to Michael Richardson, who's a kitman at the academy now - he used to run rings round us when we were kids. He played for Crammy - he was so good.

We got to wear those two kits there, and then do you remember that EURO 96 England home kit? They'd been given a set of that from years back, so we wore that one as well. It was class, a proper England kit. This was probably the first time when I'd played, done well, and thought something might come of it. I enjoyed playing - I would have played Northern League, Conference, whatever - and I just wanted to continue. I played in the home nations tournament that summer, and then a week later I ended up on trial at Darlington.

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Burn's progress was rapid after he joined Darlington in July 2009

I learned my trade at Darlington. I owe the youth team manager, Craig Liddle, a lot - he turned us from a lad who just enjoyed football into an actual footballer. This was my second year as a YT at Darlington and I've just had my hair highlighted. It was just as Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch were coming in and were quite popular, and I thought I had a bit of a surfer boy look. To be fair, this says more about my wife than anyone, because she went out with me when I had that haircut.

And this one, with my car... I'd been over training with the youth team and went to get something out of my car, only to realise that the first team lads had decided to cover my car in trees and leaves. I loved that car as well - a Peugeot 206, electric blue. I used to pile the lads in the back and it cost me 80 quid a week in petrol to get to Durham and Darlington to train. I was only paid 55 quid a week so I had to take 20 quid off the other lads to make sure I could get there.

They were good times. I made loads of mates and I still speak to some lads I was in the youth team with. But at this stage, I didn't think I'd be playing forever.

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Burn made his professional debut in a 5-0 defeat at Torquay in December 2009

My debut, Torquay away at Plainmoor. Our centre half went down injured about 20 minutes in and I was getting brought on. I was so nervous that when I went to pull my trackies off, I pulled my shorts down as well.

I went on, we got absolutely battered and I was miles out of my depth. We travelled nine hours back on the coach, and then I just got in my car - the blue Peugeot - and had the music blasting. I was buzzing just to know that whatever happens, I'd made an appearance in the Football League. That was huge for me at the time. I remember how excited I was. I couldn't care less that we'd conceded five.

Four months earlier I was playing for a junior team that folded, and had packed in playing to go and work at Asda. The fact that I'd now played a game in the Football League... no-one could take that away from me.

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Darlington were relegated to the Conference in 2010 but Burn - pictured after seeing off Gateshead in the FA Trophy semi-final - helped the Quakers reach Wembley in 2011

This is from the following season. It was a difficult time for the club. I think we played something like 60-odd players that season - every week there'd be new lads turning up. I didn't know any different. I just assumed that's the way football was. I just cracked on.

I got a chance in the January when one of the centre halves was cup-tied. They brought me back up from the youth team and I played really well. I think I played 14 or 15 games on the bounce, and then we played Gateshead in the two-legged Trophy semi-final. This photo is after the away game - we drew 0-0 to send us to Wembley.

Literally just after that, the gaffer pulled me to say that Fulham had made an offer for me. I went down to Fulham with my dad. I had a suit on - I think I'm the only player to ever turn up for a medical in a suit, but I was trying to make a good impression - and I had a bad knee. I'd been getting injections because at Darlington we couldn't afford to MRI it. I did all the scans and it turned out I'd torn my meniscus in my first game that season, and just hadn't realised it. I was panicking - 'they're going to fail me on the medical' - but they said they'd still sign me. But I had to go back and tell Darlington that in order to sign I had to have an operation, and that would mean I missed the final at Wembley.

I met the lads down in London, watched them train and went to the game. We won in the last minute - Chris Senior popped up with a header - and they all went to celebrate on the coaches, they all had their families down. I jumped in a taxi and went back to Fulham, where I'd moved into digs. It was a bit of an anti-climax. I knew that part of it all, for me, was done.

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Celebrating Yeovil's League One play-off final win - in which he scored at Wembley - over Brentford in May 2013

Going to Fulham was an opportunity I was never turning down. I wanted to play as high as I could. I wanted to live in digs, and I moved in with a really nice family. A couple of weeks ago when we played Fulham, they all came - Kev and Elaine, their two sons Chris and Nick and their daughter Lizzy. They helped me a lot, with my actual family being so far away. I lived with them for a year and a bit before I went on loan to Yeovil.

At the start of that season, I'd gone in to see the manager, Martin Jol. A lot of lads had been moved up to train with the first team but I hadn't. I said I didn't want to play under-21s football any more. I didn't get anything from it. I'd been used to playing with men, alongside lads playing for mortgages and cars and that, and I was now playing football that I didn't feel meant anything. He said, 'you can't train with the first team'. So I was like, 'well, I'll go out on loan'. He said, 'there's no interest - no-one wants you'. 'Oh. OK'. Brilliant.

I managed to get my agent to get me to Yeovil in League One. We lost my first six games but won eight in a row around January, and just kicked on. The same 11 played most weeks. Paddy Madden on the left there - he probably had his best season ever. He came on loan from Carlisle and couldn't stop scoring. He had a good partnership with James Hayter up front. The captain Jamie McAllister was a proper leader - if he didn't play, we didn't win - and Luke Ayling, who's at Leeds now, was at full back.

We did really well to get to the play-off final and went 2-0 up at Wembley. I managed to get a goal. We practised it, that corner - we thought they were weak round the back. I remember heading it and James Hayter swung at it, but I saw it go in so I just ran off celebrating. It did go down as my goal. I'm keeping that. If you look at the records, it's my goal...

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Burn celebrates his only goal for Birmingham, against Swansea City, in September 2013

Just before I left Yeovil the gaffer, Gary Johnson, said, 'we want you back next season - don't be going anywhere else, don't be going to Birmingham or anything', probably because he knew that Fulham had set it up for me to go there in the Championship. They had Lee Clark, a legend, in charge and Steve Watson, Terry McDermott, Faz - Derek Fazackerley - too. I enjoyed it but I struggled a bit when I was there - started off alright, then had a sticky spell.

It was the first time I'd lived by myself. Part of the deal was that they would pay for a flat for me to rent. My wife was at the University of Leicester at the time so I would see a lot of her. I lived with a lad called Tom Adeyemi and there were four or five of us round the same age - Olly Lee, Andrew Shinnie, a few others too. We would take turns cooking for each other and play FIFA together as well. It was class. We'd train and then stay out and play football golf for a few hours. Now, that would never happen or be allowed to happen, but at the time we'd do it and I loved it, even though I was only there six months.

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Making his debut for Fulham in a 1-1 FA Cup third round draw at Norwich City in January 2014

I came back to Fulham in the January and this is my first game for them at Carrow Road. I'd played for Birmingham on New Year's Eve and got in the car to drive back up to Newcastle because we'd been given a few days off. Lee Clark rang me - 'Fulham have recalled you, they want you to play in the cup, then we'll take you back'. I was thinking, 'but I'm going back home! I'm meant to be going out with my mates!'

Rene Meulensteen was manager at the time and Fulham were struggling. He put me in for this game and we drew. I ended up not going back to Birmingham, and I made my Premier League debut against Arsenal a week later.

Closing down Robin van Persie at Old Trafford the following month

This one, against Manchester United, was probably my best game that year. It was the anniversary of the Munich air disaster. I was a bit nervous anyway, and we were stood round the centre circle at Old Trafford for the minute's silence. I looked up and there was Rooney, van Persie, Vidic. I thought, 'what the **** am I doing here?'

We scored first, then they went 2-1 up, but we equalised in the last minute. I think they gave me man of the match. That was the first time I thought, 'wow - I could be a Premier League footballer here'.

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Burn, by then a Wigan Athletic player, faced United in the Championship in 2016/17

I'd just been let go by Fulham in 2016 and I was expecting loads of teams to be in for me; to be able to pick and choose where I went. It got to the point where the only team in the Championship that would take a chance on me was Wigan. I got there low on confidence, having been released. Gary Caldwell was the manager and I think, single-handedly, I probably got the guy the sack, just with how bad I was. But it was a confidence thing - I wasn't playing well. In my first season it was difficult but by the time of this photo I'd started playing OK, and ended up getting player of the year.

This is the Newcastle game I remember telling you about when I had that chance with the header - pretty similar to what happens now, to be fair. The ball came in, and I'd already decided that I'd scored. I put it wide because I was already wheeling away like Shearer in my head. This might be the tackle where I absolutely smashed Matt Ritchie. He got up and I can't tell you exactly what he said, but it was along the lines of, 'what are you doing?' I was like, 'can I not tackle you because you play for Newcastle, like?' I always remind him of that.

After captaining the Latics to a famous FA Cup win over Manchester City in February 2018

We had a good team, even though we went down at the end of that season, and I knew what League One would be about - I'd been there before. Paul Cook came in and we had a good cup run - I scored in a replay against the gaffer's Bournemouth team, then beat West Ham, then Manchester City. Sam Morsy was suspended so I was captain for the City game. Will Grigg went through and scored, we held on for ten minutes and then I think people started thinking I might have a chance of kicking on again.

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Burn joined Brighton & Hove Albion in 2018, establishing himself at the Amex after a loan spell back at Wigan

I knew the situation I was going into at Brighton. I was going there as third choice behind Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy, a solid partnership. But I couldn't turn down the chance to go back to the Premier League. I knew that if I trained well, I'd get an opportunity. I was unlucky, probably, to not get a game in my first year.

When they sacked Chris Hughton, I was in shock - he'd kept them up for the last three seasons - and when Graham Potter came in, even though I'd seen him at Swansea, I didn't know a lot about what he'd done before that.

I think he liked me. If I'm told to do something, I'll just do it to the best of my ability. I'll not go off the cuff. I'll just do what I'm asked. When he came in, he said it was a clean slate for everyone and that whatever happened in training would dictate the team. I kicked on from there and it gave me belief that I could play in all these positions he wanted me to play in. I'll be forever grateful to him, because I could never be here if it hadn't been for Graham Potter.

Trying, unsuccessfully, to get Andy Carroll's shirt after a goalless draw at St. James' Park in September 2019

I always looked forward to these Newcastle games; it was the first game I'd look for, knowing my family and friends would be there. I was buzzing for this one. Just before I signed for Darlington, Andy Carroll had been ripping it up, and I was buzzing when he came back to Newcastle. In that match he came off the bench for the first time since returning, and I had a beaming smile on my face. I tried to get his shirt after the game but I couldn't get it. I asked for it on the pitch but as happens sometimes, for whatever reason I didn't get it. It was more for my brother, as he loved him too. But it was good to see him back in black and white stripes.

Netting an "absolute screamer" to seal victory over City in May 2021

And this game against City was probably my best moment there. It was the first game with some fans back after Covid. We went 1-0 down, they had a man sent off, then we went 2-0 down. But we came back and this was the winner - an absolute screamer, as you can see. I got it caught under my feet, then stabbed it, then it came back to my right foot, then I bobbled it over someone on the line. I wasn't sure if I was offside so I just lay there and everyone slid on top of me.

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Burn exchanges views with Aston Villa's Ollie Watkins during his debut for the Magpies in February 2022

I think here, he's probably saying, 'that's three times you've fouled me'. And I'm telling him some expletives.

But the feeling that day was class. Jamaal (Lascelles) ended up being ill so I found out I would be playing on the Saturday morning. I was full of nerves and excitement. Coming out to Local Hero... it was unreal. I just wanted to have a good touch to get me into the game, and I got an easy one first thankfully, bringing it down on my chest. The rest was a blur. But the fact I won my first game for Newcastle, and it went well... I was like, 'whatever happens now, I've always got this'.

His United bow, just a few weeks after he joined from Brighton, ended in a 1-0 win for United

I think I showed people what I can do. I think a lot of people, when I joined, might have doubted me a bit. I knew after the takeover, some fans might have been wanting some really world class players, and that wasn't going to happen. I wouldn't knock myself down, but I didn't want them to be disappointed when they found out I was one of the ones coming in, do you know what I mean? I told the gaffer and anyone I spoke to that I knew I could come in and make a big difference and help the squad, so just to be there - and prove myself right a little bit - was special.

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Taking on Ryan Fraser at tennis during Newcastle's pre-season training camp in Austria in July 2022

I've never really played any other sports seriously - it was football or nothing for me. I think Newcastle in general is such a football-dominated city, and a lot of the other sports don't come close to it. I like NFL - I always think that if I was born in America I would have played loads of sports. But I was never fussed about rugby, cricket, tennis.

Ask Ryan Fraser - I'm terrible at tennis. The form's not bad in this photo, but I was horrific. Me and Ryan played a game on a day off when we were out in Austria. I was absolutely soaked and he hardly broke a sweat.

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In September, Burn visited the Great North Children's Hospital during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

I remember doing these kind of visits when I was at Fulham and Birmingham, but I don't think you appreciate it as much when you haven't got kids. Now I have, you know what they want to talk about and stuff. I used to feel like I was just going in to show my face, and I didn't really like doing it, but now I'm older and a father, I can relate to the parents, I can relate to the children, and it's something I like doing. I want to give back a bit.

I was so sad. The kids were great - they didn't really know any different - and that lad there, we were talking about Pokémon for ages. But I felt so sorry for the parents. You put yourself in that situation, and I couldn't imagine going through that.

It's on days like this where you see how much of an effect we can have on people. Because I'm at home now, back up here, I feel like I can relate to people a lot more. When I was younger - and this is going to sound terrible - you feel like you haven't got time for that. You're thinking, 'I'm trying to be a professional footballer, I'm putting all my energy into that'. I know it sounds horrific.

But I think having kids, and getting older, changes you and your perspective on life. You're prepared to give more of your time up because you know you can make a big difference. When I was a kid, Newcastle United footballers were like gods; if you saw one, you were buzzing. So if you can say hello to someone, sign something, do something for a charity or go on a visit, you do, because you're aware of how big a difference it can make to people.

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Burn was handed the captain's armband during the closing stages of the 5-1 win over Brentford at St. James' Park a fortnight ago

To say even I did it for ten minutes, it's something I'm taking. In pre-season I was captain against Burnley, and I remember wearing the armband and just being absolutely buzzing. 'I'm captaining Newcastle United - how ridiculous is that?!'

It's nice to think I've settled into the group well too, and I'm seen as that sort of figure in the dressing room. I'd love to be able to start a game as captain of Newcastle United as it's something I've always wanted to do. But we've got a lot of strong leaders in the group, so anyone on that pitch could wear it, to be honest.

I've kept this armband - it's something I'll be able to look back on when I finish playing - but I didn't want to take it off. I'd still be wearing it now, underneath my jacket as I'm out walking the dog...